What do you think of cameras in public places in Glens Falls and Queensbury?
What do you think of a plan by Warren County officials to spend $200,000 in federal aid to install cameras in the “high crime” areas of Glens Falls and Queensbury. Are these cameras needed? Are there high-crime areas of Queensbury and Glens Falls? Could this money be better spent on more effective crime-fighting programs? Is this a case of Big Brother further invading our lives?
About the author: Mark Mahoney, 46, is the editorial page editor for The Post-Star. He has been with the newspaper for the past 21 years. Mahoney is the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on issues related to open government.
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Brian: you are confused with the eavesdropping laws and a conversation you are having with someone. it is against the law to record people without their knowledge and consent if you are not a party to the conversation. when you are one of the parties in the phone conversation or whatever conversation, it is called consensual exception to the eaves dropping laws. you can record anyone in that conversation as long as you are in the conversation, without their knowledge or consent. and if you don’t believe me, ask an attorney. don’t ask some of the commenters in here because they think they are lawyers because they know how to google.
Back to cameras and police. WE NEED IT AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL
Sorry for my delayed response from Sunday’s guest article by Kate Hogan. I’m going to sound off here and agree with her 101%! Also I want to tie this into something I read a while back by Summer Mom I think it was? On how dangerous our town’s middle school atmosphere has become in relation to your Columbine anniversary article. Both will go hand in hand here. First, Mrs. Hogan is an excellent DA. She actually cares about the place in which she is raising her children and living her life as well as being the counties leading legal advocate. She has a lot of integrity and down home honesty. She stated Sunday, “A 41 percent increase in felony arrests in Glens Falls (Not Queensbury, not Argyle, not Hudson Falls) and Warren County doubling its drug arrests last year, we know that crime is increasing…” As a parent considering moving out of Glen Falls proper, I’d like to know what percentage of those county drug arrests were of Glens Falls residents tied in with students? Is it just me or do you get freaked out thinking that % is almost 50%!? Anyone know Charles Bronson? My connection is these arrestees kids go to Glens Falls schools. I don’t like that large percentage. As condemning as this might sound, research shows that children coming from such homes tend to follow some of those trends within their own households, .etc that means it leaks into the schools.
Cameras are needed everywhere Kate. A micro version of police presence as we saw for years in NYC in uniform is needed also in Glens Falls, particularly at night and on weekends and in the city proper, and on streets where our schools are, particularly the middle/high school’s streets, visible and noticeable. To me this is not a negative police state; on the contrary it’s a positive publicity and protective visual state. A resounding “Yes” on cameras everywhere! It’s time this town faced the truth even the yuppsters wanna-bes, “Everything is perfect here” people. In fact, as a realist I think the Mayor would agree with the DA, unless he goes into yuppster mode.
Now my connection to the Town’s Middle School and Summer Mom’s comments relating to the Columbine anniversary article: I am going to agree that our middle school in the midst of this rise in crime and drug use and is a ticking time bomb. This is the age when kids do some pretty mean things in general. In fact, let’s see the stats or arrests of adolescence/teens and see if more occur in our town at the middle school age or high school? That would prove to be pretty darn interesting. A lot of things are going wrong at our middle school; bomb threats, violence, rampant bullying, sexual promiscuity, around 40- 45% of the school that are on free and reduced food programs I.e. lack of parental presence in many cases, huge numbers of kids on PINS, drug use and a major, major lack of administrative presence in the halls, before and after school on the sidewalks and on campus, and in general a lack of discipline and yes presence felt by criminal types. Back to cameras and police. WE NEED IT AT THE MIDDLE SCHOOL on Quade St, Sherman Ave, Grant Ave and surrounding streets of all school in the Glens Falls City School District.!
There are roughly 700 + people in that institution everyday. I can say as a parent that place is out of control. Cameras could deter crimes, bullying, drug sales, student and parent rendezvous of criminal intent and actually perhaps encourage the administration to do their job because it would be on camera they are not as in being present. This is not a perception at this point, it’s a fact. I can’t wait for my last child to get out of that place sincerely. It’s a wreck. No offense to the teachers, they do their jobs.
Kate says cameras? I say Yes! Police presence- Yes! Columbine repeat, no!
Localmomteacher
If you were the victim of a crime, you would want the truth told. Cameras don’t lie.
I understand that police budgets are tight. I understand that South Street is a problem (not a new one). What I don’t understand is if the city really wants to make that their gateway- why put a stigma on it that it is so crime ridden that the police can’t handle it. That’s not where I would invest my money for sure. I want to invest in a community on the rise, not one that has given up on itself and its own ability. I mean really, the police dept is right across the circle… The cameras in Schenectady and Albany are meant to curb drug and violence in the face of fewer police on patrol. If you watch the news as much as you blog then you know, it’s not working. Hoodies are a criminals best friend. So what’s next? Outlaw hoodies?
I think its great!
I think that the cameras should televised, C-Span fashion. What great entertainment, and boundless commercial opportunity!
Apparently, Murphy is not content wasting money on cameras in places like Glens Falls and Queensbury. I read in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise that’s looking to get cameras into even more chaotic, crime-ridden places often confused with the Bronx or Mogadishu… the villages of Saranac Lake and Lake Place.
All this is a giant money toss. Instead of finding things to fund that are really needed, they are concocting unnecessary nonsense so we can get “our share” of the bonanza!
Ever been a victim of a senseless crime, had your tires slashed, your car keyed, etc? Now, if a camera would enable the police to catch who it was, how can that be a bad thing? Would cameras make people behave, probably not, considering any pointed on South Street would be pointed at people too drunk to care. The costs is the only arguement. Having another set of eyes, or additional help in catching a criminal and helping the victim, those are all good things.
If you want to call someone up on the phone or even interview them face to face and simply record just their voice, you need to get explicit permission from them. But video recording their every move and recording it for posterity, the government should be able to just do willy nilly?
Mr. Cerro is correct in regards to the lights-to-camera ratio. However, I don’t undestand how an unmonitored camera is going to trample my rights. Police State, my hindleg. I still have the freedom to make an ass of myself, monitored or not.
If we are to use the UK surveillance model to predict what might happen here in Hometown USA, then one must pay attention to the multitude of studies reflecting that it’s not cameras, but rather STREET LIGHTS that provide the most effective deterrent to crime.
Districts with a higher “lights to camera” ratio consistently rated lower crime stats than those with a higher “camera to lights” ratio.
Criminals are generally a cowardly lot, and their nerve decreases dramatically with any environmental element that affords a greater possibility of them being seen, stopped, or caught. Sure, cameras will do that to an extent, but do we really have to trample EVERYONE’S liberties to ensure a reasonable degree of public safety?
Police State Never, Hometown Forever!
Aside from the Big Brother thing, this is really an issue of misplaced resources, don’t you think. For $200,000 (the other $50,000 is going for license plate readers), you can buy a few extra cops or training for drug officers or facade improvements or sentencing and drug-rehab programs for the people you’re trying to watch with the cameras. And since this affects the business community, shouldn’t they be expected to pitch in, as they they do in other cities?
I love how we claim “can’t afford” things like single payer health and struggle to give Meals on Wheels to senior citizens but find plenty of money to waste on Big Brother cameras in low crime areas like ours.
Thanks. Regardless, it’s still a stuid idea
mayor diamond, send me to london for two weeks.i’ll do a study(glens falls is good at those) and report back on my experience.i promise.
You would be very dissappointed, Brian!
Nortnort: Great! I’ll make sure one gets installed in your bedroom pronto!
British streets have a camera every 2.3 yards. It has the highest one of the highest crime rates in Europe.
Thanks for putting the words “High crime” in quotes. Bar brawls and cheesy street corner drug deals don’t really make for a high crime area.
No drive-bys and outright gang warfare or anything on that scale… count your blessings and save your money.
And get some perspective, folks.
Sceptical: It’s not stimulus money. The $250,000 request is contained in the FY 2010 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill.
God forbid a camera might pick up a drug deal or crime in progress or a stolen car. Oh no, big brother is watching! Film away, Tony, I have nothing to hide!
Re: Mr. Cerro
You should have some milk and cookies or something and calm down. I asked a simple question, hoping for an answer from Mr. Mahoney, not a soap-box diatribe. For the record: I agree with you, for the most part. It’s a waste, it’s stupid, it’s not needed, and it illustrates just how out of touch our representative really is. How about some funding for business creation or job training? How about some money to repave the numerous crumbling roads in the area? How about funding an anti-heroin and crack task-force? What can Mr. Murphy be thinking of?
RE: “Is this stimulous money?”
Does it really matter? It’s still taxpayer money being used to forge chains of civil bondage around our necks.
Per this week’s article entitled “Murphy seeks cash for crime cameras”, it was stated (presumably by Murphy)that:
“The goal is not to protect the streets as much as it is to have an independent eye on the people using them.”
Right there we see the stated goal has little or nothing to do with public safety. An independent eye on the people using the streets? Whose eye would that be? My eye’s about as independent as they come, how long do you think I’d be allowed to follow people down the sidewalks of GF, filming or otherwise surveilling them? Would any of you be ok with me following you around for a day, tracking your movements and keeping your image on file in the event that I needed it later for “evidence”?
Hot on the heels of these cameras, Murphy seeks an additional “$100,000 in federal funding that the Warren County Sheriff’s Office would use to create an “Emergency Response Team,” similar to a so-called SWAT team, that could be used in standoffs with armed criminals and in other dangerous situations.”
Surveillance cameras, SWAT teams. This is all about setting foundations in place for even more fascism to follow.
As Thomas Jefferson said “He who trades liberty for security deserves neither and will lose both.”
Is there anywhere near the amount of crime in this area to justify this waste of money?
The paper’s constantly editorializing in favor of cutting public safety (humans) on the rationale that there’s little crime anyways.
The paper also praised I forget I think Washington County for rejecting federal money for starting some unneeded program.
It should do the same here.
yes, for years i have been saying that we are under communism. and people said i was wearing a tin foil hat. who is eating crow now?
Guess I’ll have to keep my pants on!
Is this stimulous money?
I have those same suspicions. But does a public camera automatically mean Big Brother is watching? In most cases, police don’t monitor the cameras closely or even look at them in real time. Courts have ruled that they can’t use sound (that’s eavesdropping), and that video can only be used against people as evidence in crimes. They also have proven to deter crime in big cities. So would they really be that bad?
I remeber watching TV years ago when an American correspondent to Russia made mention of all the cameras in public places and how glad he was to be an American and live in a country that didn’t look like a police state.
Can you say martial law people or are you still into getting your info from the controlled media and pre-occupied with ball games.